Collapse of the Cocaine Kingdom

The other day yet another Venezuelan Supreme Court justice jumped ship and fled to USA. Last week it was the president of the criminal court, Eliado Aponte Aponte. In 2006 it was Luis Velásquez Alvaray in the constitutional court. It has already become clear that president Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías himself is the drug kingpin, and today it seems he – or the people controlling him now that he is dying of cancer – panicked.

They aired Chávez (speaking from a specially designed podium to hide his health state) giving orders his underlings to gather a Council of State with instructions to advice on the modality of leaving the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), a body of OAS. There is no doubt that this announcement has a lot to do with Aponte’s revelation regarding the completely arbitrary nature of Venezuelan justice. He said straight out that “there are political prisoners in Venezuela”, and that nothing is done without the approval of Chávez personally. Another way of saying that it is a dictatorship.

Personally I found out today that general Baduin was not jailed for having opposed election fraud, a rumor I reported the other day. Rather it had to do with cocaine smuggling. While he was minister of defense he found out that over 2 tons of cocaine had been discovered on a military base under the command of general Rangel Silva. He wrote to his personal friend Hugo Chávez and politely suggested that it be investigated. Instead Baduin was slandered, deposed, thrown in prison (where he still sits), and Rangel Silva was promoted to minister of defense.

Hugo Chávez’s entire behavior is consistent with that of a cocaine addict. He shows no conscience. He abuses verbally those who don’t lick his boots. He shows no risk awareness. He openly commits immoral acts of power abuse. All of this is very obvious to any non-abusing person who observes him, but other cocaine abusers will see his behavior as perfectly normal and rational. That is why Venezuela has become a Cocaine Kingdom – it doesn’t just produce and transit drugs, it has itself become a victim to those drugs.

This victimhood has gone so far as to sell out the entire country to foreign nations. For short-term gains, Chávez has signed contracts with China and others that are extremely negative for the country in the long term. But it gets worse. His complete trust in Fidel Castro has enabled the Cuban dictatorship to take over Venezuela. The database of persons is already controlled on the communist island. Elections can be staged via an underwater cable. The secret service, G2, is managing the presidential palace in Venezuela. Cuban militaries are giving orders to the Venezuelan defense forces. They are also maneuvering to make sure their man takes over after Chávez, who is receiving all his cancer treatment on Cuba.

There can be little doubt that the Cuban regime, which is totally dependent on the petroleum income it receives from Venezuela, will do anything in its power to stay in control over the South American country. Leaving IAHCR (and thus OAS) can also be seen in that perspective, as a way to disengage Venezuela from the international community, so as to make it available for entering in a permanent union with Cuba, or in a federal state with Venezuela dissolved and only the individual states remaining. Naturally it will be controlled from Havana!

Unless the Venezuelans wake up from their (drug-induced?) slumber they will lose not just their freedom and their democracy, but their very country, the sovereignty of the nation of Simón Bolívar, and possibly its very existence. That would be a sad day indeed.

The Council of State will be headed by José Vicente Rangel. He is a political operative, not one of the revolutionary fireheads, nor one of the narco-generals. The withdrawal from IAHRC is surely aimed at calming the narco-generals, to keep them from taking over. The question is who will be the chavista candidate in October. Their best chance is probably with Nicolas Maduro, the present foreign minister.

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Ulf Erlingsson

Purpose

This blog was originally set up to inform about the events of the political crisis in Honduras 2009, and that information can still be found in the archives. The content gradually shifted to debate reforms aimed at increasing democracy under the rule of law, and thus raise the standard of living for all in the country. Among the crucial factors for sustainable development we find science. It is maintained by Ulf Erlingsson, D.Sc.